Paris Attacks Legitimize a New Wave of Counter-Terrorism and Emergency Laws

The tragic Paris attacks led me to raise questions once again, since it is
the second time that France has topped the news headlines this year. I believe
that followers of Global Gold's Outlook
Report are now aware that I am a big fan of history. I have a tendency
to go back to my history books to reflect on the past and recognize similar
patterns to the events that we are experiencing today.

Looking back, it seems obvious that, going through the 20th century and into
the 21st, wars went, from being about nationalism, to ideological wars (communism
versus democracy or what we would call 'state
capitalism disguised in democracy'), to becoming about religion, which
sort of takes us back to the dark ages. Since the Berlin wall came down, back
in 1989, and communism was defeated, it has been replaced by the "Muslim world".
We could see this change in Hollywood movies and in our media coverage. Audiences,
who are not aware of political contexts, easily link Islam to terrorism. As
a result, they have wrongfully become two sides of the same coin. In our coverage
of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, we talked a lot about freedom of the press. However,
at this point I would like to take the opportunity to look at the greater picture
of the Paris attacks.

"They hate us because we are free!"

Since 9/11, western governments have conveniently used the "war on terror" to
launch military attacks on the Middle East. Whenever an attack occurred on
western soil, they came up with the same statement that "they hate us because
we're free". Ryan McMaken from the Mises Institute wrote the following a few
days ago:

"that this slogan has been especially effective among very ignorant sectors
of the population who seemed to be under the impression that the United
States had been engaged in non-interventionist foreign policy prior to
the 9/11 attacks. "Why we were just minding our own business", came the
shocked and exasperated claims of the know-nothings. "These Arabs just
attacked us for no reason, so they must just hate us because we're so doggone
free."

The problem is that there is a large segment of western society that believes
these statements, and even supports this viewpoint. As a result, military involvement
in the Middle East has grown out of proportion. Now, 13 years after the beginning
of the second war in Iraq, the West can't get itself out of the mess that it
created with its bare hands. History tells us some important facts: the U.S.
used rebel groups in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union. These groups were
led by Osama
Bin Laden, back then hailed by the Americans as a hero, who later formed
Al-Qaeda that became the synonym for terror. But since Bin Laden was killed,
terror needed a new face: ISIS.

ISIS is an off-shoot of Al-Qaeda. However, the reason why it gained power
so quickly is due to the U.S. presence in Iraq. Not only did it topple a government,
it wrecked a whole country, destabilized an entire region and left behind a
power vacuum. This power vacuum allowed armed groups to emerge and to gain
a foothold in the region. ISIS managed to find its way to Syria by manipulating
the war between Bashar Al Assad and the Free Syrian Army. This war meant the
destruction of Syria and its infrastructure, instability, and a massive flow
of refugees into the Middle Eastern countries that now began to shift to Europe.
In his remark to American journalist Ben Swann in his documentary "Origin
of Isis", Daniel Mc Adams (Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute)
described ISIS as the best-funded armed group, since they secured oil from
fields in Syria that is now being sold in the black market. All of this comes
down to the direct action of the U.S. and Europe in the Middle East - they
were not just "minding their own business" at all now, were they?

ISIS is not a coincidence - it is the logical result of western policies since
the Cold War

This goes even further than 9/11, since the emergence of armed Islamist groups
like the Taliban, Al-Qaida and ISIS are the logical consequence of the massive
interventions that have occurred since the 1950s. Even politicians don't deny
that they have contradictory policies. When asked about the sanctions on Iraq
up to 2003 that led to the death of an estimated 500'000 children (more than
those that died in Hiroshima), Madeleine Albright said the price was worth
it. It is clear even to those who are not afraid to recognize their own "cognitive
dissonance", that the Islamist armed groups, whether the Taliban, Al-Qaida
or ISIS have all been financed and armed by the same powers that are responsible
for waging war on the Third World for decades.

So why was Paris attacked? Daniel Mc Adams stated that the U.S. is "hostage
to its own regime-change philosophy". However, the rest of the western world
is also a hostage in one way or another. The fact that Paris was targeted for
another catastrophe could be linked to France's intensive meddling in Africa
and the Middle East in recent years. The French government alone conducted
more than 200 bombing raids in the Middle East in little over one year. They
also have a colonial history of more than 100 years in the Middle East and
still deploy several thousand troops to West Africa. They were also involved
in NATO's war against the Libyan government in 2011.

However, there is another side to the story, since some facts about the Paris
attacks were strange and raised red flags. First, there was a multi-site simulation
of a terrorist attack planned involving first responders, police, emergency
services and other personnel in the morning hours of November 13th (as confirmed
by Patrick Pelloux, EMT and chronicler at Charlie Hebdo, to France Info radio
on the following day). This was similar to the government exercises conducted
in the advent of the bombings in London, Madrid and Boston. I find this quite
disturbing. When something repeats itself, it usually is no longer a coincidence.
Second, the directors of the CIA and French intelligence held a meeting a few
days before the attack. Could this be just another coincidence? These "coincidences" reminded
me of 1990, when Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti officially revealed
information on 'Operation
Gladio'. Gladio was a secret 'stay-behind' operation created by NATO with
the help of the Pentagon, the CIA and MI6. It orchestrated bombings in Italy
and other European countries. Their goal was to rally people's support for
their governments in Europe in their fight against communism. The Swiss historian
and peace researcher, Dr. Daniele Ganser, and others wrote about this dark
form of government oppression. He quotes right-wing extremist Vincenzo Vinciguerra,
who had ties to the Gladio branch of the Italian military secret service, as
saying:

"You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people,
unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite
simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to
turn to the state to ask for greater security. This is the political logic
that lies behind all the massacres and the bombings which remain unpunished,
because the state cannot convict itself or declare itself responsible for
what happened."

Don't get me wrong, I am not claiming that Paris was a false flag attack,
because I really don't know. Nevertheless, what can be said is that many terror
attacks/incidents in the past were conducted by the "deep state" and its servants,
the secret agencies, with the aim to shape the people's perception towards
certain groups or countries. Therefore, I believe it would be naïve to
take the official story for granted without even asking a few questions. Gladio,
amongst others, is just a perfect example of how governments used oppression
against their own citizens to shape the mindset of the public to unify them
towards a common goal and objective, which in our case is: counter-terrorism.
The problem, however, is that by giving this support, the public indirectly
relinquishes many freedoms and liberties.

After the siege: closing on the home front

The aftermath of the attack will also have repercussions at home. Now, that
the pretext is created, the state can justify limiting freedoms and liberties,
as well as monitor and coerce. In our interview with Prof. Ing. Václav
Klaus, former President of the Czech Republic, shortly after the Charlie Hebdo
incident, he warned us that we will see new waves of attempts to limit our
freedoms, under the banner of fighting terrorism. This is exactly what we are
seeing today. By the time this article was written, France had announced it
will derogate from the European Convention on Human Rights during its state
of emergency!

But what truly astonishes, is the fact that governments seem to have little
regard for their people. I have the feeling that some people in power just
believe that we are completely ignorant. Of course, they have also created
the mechanisms to be able to indoctrinate us. Just look at our public education
system. Wilhelm Wundt, father of experimental psychology (and his proponents
John Dewey and Edward Thorndike in the U.S.), who was the scientist that shaped
today's public educational system explained it in this way: "man is devoid
of spirit and self-determinism. He set out to prove that man is the summation
of his experience, of the stimuli which intrude upon his consciousness and
unconsciousness." Similarly, H. L. Mencken, a German-American journalist, who
wrote in the April 1924 issue of The American Mercury that the aim of public
education is not:

"...to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their
intelligence... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim... is
simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level,
to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.
That is its aim in the United States... and that is its aim everywhere
else."

Our public education system is based on methods that show we can grow up based
on a stimulus-response compatibility. Our way of thinking and mindset are based
on conditioning and not on logical thinking. Therefore, Wundt and his associates
believed that, through its education system, the state seeks to indoctrinate
us to believe that the right of the individual is secondary (at best) to the
greater good. The renowned psychoanalytic Arno Gruen says that we enter the
world as individuals but leave it as copies. This means that our education
system discourages the development of independent thought. If you don't fit
into the preset mold then you are wrong. We have lost our free will.

Stop fighting symptoms - think independently and look for the cause and effect!

I hope you are not offended by my words and will forgive me because I'm a
freedom and liberty loving Swiss. I have been raised in a political environment
of neutrality with no foreign intervention for 500 years and a political system
that allows less centralization of power than any other form of government.
Therefore, we have never experienced nationalistic or even racist propaganda
campaigns or presidents telling us to wage a war against another country for
one cause or another. To believe that peace can be created through bombing
and killing millions of civilians, is something I fail to understand. This
is because I personally prefer to think independently and to investigate and
explore instead of prematurely taking positions or adopting the views of others.

We have to think in terms of cause and effect and not like the mainstream
media, or public intellectuals and politicians who only tackle the symptoms.
For example, I find that the cause of high crime rates is an unsound society
that is negatively impacted by the state that legitimizes the use of coercive
measures (including the use of force). Similarly, an overwhelming state that
uses force against foreigners will always use coercion against its own people,
both physically and psychologically. It is intended to have people not think
independently.

The western governments (aided by mainstream media) don't recognize that the
cause of the refugee waves was due to their management of the situation in
the Middle East. It was a cause of direct and deliberate action. The irony
is that Western governments that sent bombs and drones to the Middle East are
now asking their citizens to embrace the refugees and to live side-by-side
in the same villages and towns, even though society has been conditioned not
to accept them. When I look at Paris and the absurd western politics promoting
'universalism', I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry - insanity among the
rulers is just inexpressible. On the other hand, the ignorance of the masses
is quite unsettling.

Our political economy reinforces state control and our education system is
designed for our indoctrination! No one knows the future but we can identify
trends. My personal opinion is that the powers are accelerating a religious
war, which will make Islam the opponent of the rest of the world. This is being
reinforced by politicians who, by definition should be serving the people,
yet self-preservation leads them to serve the state; their true master. These
circumstances create a dangerous conflict of interest.

This political context, combined with our economy, which is not based on production
and savings, but is based on printing money to finance the welfare/warfare
state, and that also relies on bribing politicians who bail out too-big-to-fail
companies, who impoverish the middle class through inflation and higher taxes,
will lead us to total dependency on governments. When we further add the factor
of terror attacks, the military response of western governments is to intensify
their attacks in the Middle East. This has only one logical consequence: that
hatred between western countries and the Muslim people will intensify and that
the parallel society in western nations and radicalization on a global scale
will increase further. More terror attacks will follow, and governments will
grow all the more coercive as they steer towards totalitarianism. People won't
be able to flee because they are trapped in a system that controls everything
and everyone.

This is what is happening right now. This is what our political leaders are
enforcing and we are all just looking to see what's going to happening next.
The pretext is clear: "they hate us because we are free". This is simply just
another way of using Hegelian Dialectic to fool the masses! From this system
of Hegelian philosophy comes the historical dialectic or as per Anthony C.
Sutton, that all historical events emerge from a conflict between opposing
forces. How so? Any idea or implementation of an idea may be seen as a thesis.
This thesis will encourage the emergence of opposing forces, known as the antithesis.
The final outcome will be neither thesis nor antithesis, but a synthesis of
the two forces in conflict. Hegel described the function of a Parliament or
a Congress as merely to allow individuals to feel that their opinions have
some value. Hegel wrote:

"By virtue of this participation, subjective liberty and conceit, with
their general opinion, (individuals) can show themselves palpably efficacious
and enjoy the satisfaction of feeling themselves to count for something."

War, the organized conflict of nations for Hegelians, is only the visible
outcome of the clash between ideas. As John Dewey, the Hegelian darling of
the modern education system, puts it:

"War is the most effective preacher of the vanity of all merely finite
interest, it puts an end to that selfish egoism of the individual by which
he would claim his life and property as his own or as his family's."

Dialectic in praxis can come as follows: Create a problem (bomb the Middle
East), provoke a reaction (refugee streams), come up with a solution (universalism)
and then start over again. Create a problem (terror attacks), provoke a reaction
(people start mistrusting and fighting each other), come up with solution (enforce
state control and deprive the public of their liberties)... it goes on and
on.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? I believe that we always have a
choice but we also have to make it. The first thing we need to do is undo the
current situation with our military involvement in the Middle East and Africa.
If we favor war over peace, it will destroy our culture, our traditions, our
freedom and our liberties. As a result, humanity is going to become a borrowed
word. This is why I strongly believe that people one day will open their eyes
and will refuse to let the media or politicians impose their reality on them.
Only independent thinking leads directly to the cause and shift the focus away
from its symptoms. I'm still convinced that people in the future will understand
what Murray Rothbard wrote a few years ago that peace is the solid foundation
for a society to live in liberty:

"Libertarianism holds that the only proper role of violence is to defend
person and property against violence, that any use of violence that goes
beyond such just defense is itself aggressive, unjust, and criminal."

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Claudio Grass is a passionate advocate of free-market thinking and libertarian
philosophy. Following the teachings of the Austrian School of Economics he
is convinced that sound money and human freedom are inextricably linked to
each other.

In his function as Managing Director at Global Gold in Switzerland he is able
to combine his passion with his work.Global Gold offers private and institutional
clients a safe, convenient and competitive Swiss solution for buying, selling,
storing and delivering a variety of physically allocated bullion coins and
bars made of gold, silver, platinum and palladium outside of the banking system.